Kyösti Lehtonen
Kyosti Emil Lehtonen ( born March 13, 1931 in Jämsä; † 15 November 1987 in Helsinki) was a Finnish wrestler.
Career
Kyosti Lehtonen grew up in Jämsä and began as a teenager with the rings. He belonged to the Finnish youth and junior level in its respective age and weight class to the best Finnish junior wrestlers.
Kyosti was inducted into the Finnish national team in 1950 and won in 1952 in the lightweight its first national championship in Greco- Roman style. He wrestled exclusively that style in competitions. Despite its success, he did not start at the Summer Olympic Games in Helsinki in 1952.
The first international championship, which he denied, were the World Championships 1953 in Naples. He was defeated in the final battle where his Nordic rival Gustav Freij from Sweden. Also at the World Championships 1955 in Karlsruhe, he took 2nd place. This time he beat although in a preliminary round fight Gustav Freij, but lost the final to the Soviet Favorites Grigori Gamarnik just on points.
At the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 Kyosti Lehtonen was able to achieve his greatest success. He was charged with five victories superior winner of the gold medal. On the way, he also defeated the multiple Swedish champion Olle Anderberg and Riza Dogan from Turkey.
A disappointment then brought World Cup 1958 in Budapest. Against Hungary Gyula Toth he managed only one draw and against Romania Dumitru Gheorghe he even had to suffer a shoulder defeat and retired after the second round.
At the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960 he came to the fourth round where he was defeated by the Bulgarians Dimitru Stoyanov on points and was eliminated. He was only 5 of these competitions. He had previously actually created with a draw against the Soviet athletes Awtandil Koridse good basis for a new medal win.
For the World Cup 1961 in Yokohama, the Finnish Wrestling Federation could send for cost reasons only a small crew. Kyosti Lehtonen was not considered. But at the World Championships in 1962 in Toledo in the U.S., he could start again. But he had drawn a very tough draw at lightweight. He struggled against Yuri Gussow from the Soviet Union and Valeriu Bularca from Romania draws and suffered a narrow point defeat by Stevan Horvat from Yugoslavia, which he retired. Kyosti ended after this World Cup, his career as a wrestler.
In addition to the rings he also tried his hand as sprinters. He ran the 100 meters in 11.1 seconds and finished with the team of ILAE Ilveksen at the Finnish Athletics Championships 1957 in the 4 x 100 m relay a good 3rd place.
Kyosti Lehtonen suffered after his career as an active athlete to alcohol problems. He died at age 56.
Achievements
International success
(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, GR = Greco-Roman style, Le = Lightweight until 1960-67 kg from 1961 up to 70 kg body weight, We = welterweight, to 78 kg body weight)